The Opera Populaire

Encountered some interesting things over the weekend. Thought I will share them with all of you.

Was driving past Bundaran HI (Hotel Indonesia Roundabout: below) when I noticed a few people sitting in lotus positions, one hand holding onto candles wrapped with cloth shaped to look like lotus, meditating. Only after looking about did I notice that there were not only 5 of them, but a whole large group sitting encircling the fountain below! The light from the lotus candles made a pretty sight in the night. Apparently they were Falungong demonstrators.
Then, on Sun morning, while on our way to Banten, we had to stop at a traffic junction because our way was blocked by a whole troop of Front Pembela Islam (Islamic Defenders Front) on motorcycles. Apparently they were on their way to the Presidential Palace to demonstrate. It was an eye-opener to see the number of supporters because the troop took about more than 7 minutes before the tail of the group drove past.

Front Pembela Islam is a radical Muslim group who recently appeared in the news for suing Miss Indonesia 2005, Nadine Chandrawinata (below, 3rd from left) because she chose to wear a bikini during the recent Miss Universe 2006 pageant (below) in Los Angeles.


Miss Chandrawinata is of mixed German-Chinese Indonesian heritage and speaks 5 languages. But she had faced criticisms upon arriving back in Indonesia not only for her apparent flouting of Islamic rules (well, she is Catholic actually) by appearing in a bikini, but also because she used Bahasa Indonesia instead of English when replying during the interview segment of the pageant. Slightly embarrassed, she told the reporters from Bisnis Indonesia (Saturday, 18th August 2006) that she was still suffering from the effects of jet lag when she made the mistake and quoted that Miss Puerto Rico, Zuleyka Rivera, also did not speak English but that was no barrier to her winning the Miss Universe 2006 title.

Yeah, I think something akin to stage fright happens to anyone and switching to doing something you are most comfortable with at that moment is a natural reaction, so Indonesians really should give Miss Chandrawinata a break about the language issue!

On a more trivial matter, was dining at a restaurant in Banten where you sit in different thatched roof houses, on straw mats with low tables (called lesehan). Behind us was a forest. Suddenly I noticed that a rather big-sized toad had climbed up from the forest side to our straw mat! I screamed and climbed pathetically onto the low chair beside mine, telling my parents to get rid of it. Even though they did manage to shoo it back to the forest floor beside the lesehan, it literally left me weak in the knees after that hahaha. *Shudder*

When our dinner arrived, a cat came to our lesehan, walking about and looking at us with big beady eyes, made even bigger by the dilation of its pupils at night. When we finally fed her our fish and chicken bones, I saw that she hesitated. Then, she took a bone and went down to this drain. Peering down, I saw a kitten emerging from the shadows. The cat placed the bone and just sat there watching with the most maternal look in her eyes as her kitten ate, not taking any for herself. Just felt so touched at the sight. I had thought she was a greedy cat but she was actually doing it all for her kitten. Truly, a parent's love is great.